VernissageTV turns 500

VernissageTV — the Internet’s unique TV art project — celebrates its 500th episode with more news than ever on contemporary art, design and architecture

Basel, May 3, 2007. VernissageTV, the Internet TV art project founded in September 2005, just published their 500th episode. The anniversary post is, for a change, not a report on an art opening or an interview with a dealer or an artist. Rather, this video, entitled “500” is a retrospective view on the last year and a half of VernissageTV. It recalls moments with artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, fair directors, such as Samuel Keller, curators, such as Bice Curiger, designers, such as Konstantin Grcic, and architects, such as Zaha Hadid; scenes from exhibitions, private views and events, such as the Jeff Wall retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the opening of the Art Basel Miami Beach, or the after-show party of the Jonathan Meese exhibition at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. This video brings the viewer to the Art Positions containers on the beach of Miami, to the art hangar of Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, and finally, to a dash down the metallic slide created by Carsten Höller at the Tate Modern in London.

Our first-ever episode, published in September 2005, recalls impressions from the opening of an exhibition by Zaha Hadid at the Museum of Architecture Basel, Switzerland. Our 499th video covers the vernissage of “Das Kapital” at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Upcoming episodes will feature the mega events: Art Basel, Venice Biennial, Documenta Kassel and Sculpture Projects Münster.

“My goodness, 500 episodes in one and a half years—I wouldn’t have dreamt that when we started this idea,” says VernissageTV co-founder Heinrich Schmidt. His partner, Arno Dietsche, adds: “By chance, we discovered that we got close to the 500th episode and were amazed. At an average length of five minutes per video, that’s 42 hours of documentary-style openings, exhibitions and interviews.”

If you browse the extensive video archive of VernissageTV you will find the big names, such as Robert Rauschenberg and Bruce Nauman, but also young stars, including Jonathan Meese or Terence Koh. Artists such as Sigmar Polke and Jeff Wall as well as designers (Luigi Colani, Konstantin Grcic, Ron Arad) and architects (Zaha Hadid, Yona Friedman); painters such as Daniel Richter as well as Internet and multimedia artists like G.H. Hovagimyan. No wonder the Internet magazine, Mediabistro Unbeige says: “And once you‘re hooked, just spend the rest of the day browsing through the site‘s archives. A veritable treasure trove.”

The overwhelming success of the Vernissage TV project wouldn’t have been possible without the commitment of the team, the open-mindedness and support of the protagonists of the art scene, and the response from our viewers and fans all over the world. “We are so happy our viewers like what we do,” says Heinrich Schmidt, “and I can promise them that there will be great things ahead. For example: The major part of our viewers comes from the United States. That’s why we will further increase our activities in the U.S. and become even more international.”

Links:
Anniversary Video: http://www.vernissage.tv/blog/2007/05/03/vernissagetv-turns-500/
About VernissageTV: http://www.vernissage.tv/blog/about/
Archive: http://www.vernissage.tv/blog/archive/

About VernissageTV
VernissageTV is an Internet TV project which covers exhibitions and events in the fields of contemporary art, design and architecture. The objective is to give an authentic insight into the world of art by the means of film / video.
VernissageTV materializes as video podcast / internet tv channel / video archive. Basically there are two series: The “No Comment” section and the interviews with the protagonists of the art world. VernissageTV is widely distributed via its website and internet tv networks. Founded in September 2005 VernissageTV is growing steadily. Until now VernissageTV produced, published and archived nearly 500 episodes.
Website: http://www.vernissage.tv/

Press contact:
Karolina Zupan-Rupp, contact@vernissage.tv
VernissageTV, Totentanz 14, 4051 Basel / Switzerland
Phone: 41 61 283 24 55
Website: www.vernissage.tv
Main feed (RSS 2.0 encl.): feeds.feedburner.com/VernissageTV

This release was published on openPR.